A cruise-ship passenger stumbles up on deck in the middle of the night, after a few hours of some serious drinking, and falls overboard.

The stunned passenger, bobbing among the waves, watches helplessly as the big ship rumbles out of sight. As the stern plate disappears, he notices for the first - and last - time that the ship's name is “Common Sense.”

In a few minutes, he is all alone. In uncharted waters. Do you like his chances?

Now, imagine that the passenger is actually the state of California, which is more than two months into a new fiscal year without a budget.

The Legislature has ended its session and most lawmakers are scattering around the state, back to the home district, plotting the next run for public office. Party leaders are, for the most part, staying in Sacramento, arguing with each other over how best to agree on a budget.

Like the overboard, befuddled cruise-ship passenger, the state is in uncharted waters. The last time California went this long without a budget in place was 2002, when lawmakers and Gov. Gray Davis couldn't agree on a budget until Aug. 31 - and we all remember what happened to Gray Davis.

One Republican lawmaker said this week the stalemate is a lose/lose situation for both parties, and that he doesn't think “Californians are sympathetic” with regard to the two parties' inability to agree on just about anything.

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And yet another California lawmaker has demonstrated that he is a master of the obvious.

The buzz in Sacramento is that the two sides are so far apart that a budget agreement may not happen this year, which means the problem may be dropped into the hands of newly elected members of the Legislature, most of whom will have zero experience in the intricate machinations of state government finance.

Hey, maybe that's not so bad.

We have joked in the past about this situation being fodder for late-night TV hosts' opening standup routines. But there's really nothing funny about it. Officials at hospitals, community colleges, day-care centers and other agencies dependent upon state money now face the very real possibility of being unable to continue operations, or making the kinds of cutbacks that limit their ability to serve their communities.

Legislative leaders who have stayed behind in Sacramento are now discussing what will happen when the state runs out of money - which is going to happen pretty quick, without a budget in place.

Does the governor have the authority to order emergency payments to keep clinics and hospitals going? Can the state take out loans to pay those with whom it does business? And even if loans are legal, how does that resolve a budget deficit?

The short answer is, it doesn't. The kind of short-term loans lawmakers are considering would add as much as $1 billion to what is already a $15.2 billion, red-ink-filled hole - a pit that just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

It is clear to everyone - except our dysfunctional gatekeepers in Sacramento - that a combination of spending cuts and tax increases will be necessary to fix this problem. The reason lawmakers can't accept such a fix is that it conflicts with their plans for the future.

How can you get re-elected if you break promises not to cut programs or raise taxes?

These are the kinds of random thoughts that likely pass through the mind of that overboard cruise-ship passenger. A little kaleidoscope of life events, as that life slowly slips away.

The good ship Common Sense is over the horizon. Only a miracle will save the water-treading passenger now. It's a truly sad thing when a state government is reduced to depending on a miracle.

September 3, 2008